COVE

William Holt Hunt was a founder and member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – a group of Victorian artists, poets, and critics. Their focus on vibrant colors and extreme detail is what set them apart from other artists during their time. Around 1851, at the time John Everett Millais painted Ophelia (another painting which portrays death in a colorful aspect), Hunt was working on The Hireling Shepherd. Both chose to paint these images outside. Hunt chose a meadow to do so. Hunt worked for half the day for five months in order to complete this painting. 

The Hireling Shepherd had its fair share of controversy when it was debuted at the Royal Academy. Many felt the blushing faces of the man and woman depicted was inappropriate, and that the painting had a hidden, sexual meaning to it. While the woman’s modest clothing and closed posture points to a refusal of the sexual advances, she is leaning into him, and keeps her gaze on him, hinting that she isn’t fully rejecting the man’s sexual advances. The focus on the sexual aspect of this painting eventually waned, and critics and artists began looking at the other hidden meanings in the painting. Mainly, how the shepherd has turned his back on his sheep, and how the flock is suffering for it, a reversal of the parable of the Good Shepherd in the Book of John. While one sheep is wandering away toward a wheat field, another lies on its back, bloating. Many have speculated the sheep are getting sick from consuming the green apples. “The painting’s narrative makes apparent that the shepherd’s betrayal of his sacred duties to engage in unabashed flirtation has endangered the health of his flock.” This narrative is obvious even in the landscape. Marshy lands commonly lead to infectious pododermatitis, an infection in the hooves of animals, which caused lameness. Considering all of this, it’s easy to draw another meaning from the painting – one about humanity itself. Hunt is depicting mankind’s disobedience to their “divine mortality.” Their immorality, their focus on sexuality, has led to the suffering of the environment. His painting not only serves as personal observations, but as a warning to humanity at large: You are responsible to preserve this world – your transgression will inevitably lead to the world’s digression.

Works Cited

http://www.williamholmanhunt.org/hireling-shepherd/

https://cmsmc.org/publications/hireling-shepherd

http://www.pneuma.org.uk/art/when-leadership-fails-holman-hunt-and-the-hireling-shepherd/

https://editions.covecollective.org/content/hireling-shepherd-william-holman-hunt

https://blog.sevenponds.com/soulful-expressions/the-significance-of-john...